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The spiritual gift of India to the world has already begun. India's spirituality is entering Europe and America in an ever increasing measure. That movement will grow; amid the disasters of the time more and more eyes are turning towards her with hope and there is even an increasing resort not only to her teachings, but to her psychic and spiritual practice. -- Sri Aurobindo (from the message broadcast on the eve of August 15, 1947)

Friday, June 29, 2012

Mihir Jha posted
a comment in Perfidy
of Indian education system, extolling virtuous tyrants · The
problem, my dear friends, is not this that Indians don't write History… That
apart, importance of Spirituality in the freedom struggle is completely
discarded by History books. Hardly anyone, of next generation, knows how one
book, "AnandaMath" which conceived the idea of "Mother
India" and "Bande Mataram" united millions of Hindus. Hardly
anyone is taught that lessons of tolerance did no good to India and it is
only when the message of Geeta to save "Dharma" was professed once
again that Hindus realized that they are not for tolerance but to defend.

Any
book on Indian History which discards Spirituality is incomplete. As
Vivekananda said, "An indian can give you everything you ask them for but
if u infringe on their rights to worship, right to practice religion and
spirituality, defile the Holy Scriptures, denigrate Dharma, corpses would turn
into lions". This teaching has been wisely eliminated from all history
books. Nor does any book talk about how likes of Swami Vivekananda, Bankim
Chandra, Sri Aurobindo helped revive the ideologies of Hindutva which played a
pivotal roled in unification of India. Consequences of these is this that today
atheists have mushroomed. Now, these atheists do not get bothered if someone
offends their ancestors. They are fully convinced that everyone in India has right
to twist things and if one has problem, he/she should write a rejoinder.

Hardly
anyone knows, that Sri Aurobindo, a Scholar who first mastered German and Latin
and then several Indian languages had written extensively on Indian History
called "Renaissance of India". He had nullified the Aryan Invasion
theory long back in 1900 only. That apart, he had given a comparative analysis
of India's History with the
rest of the world and concluded that India's
is the best and eternal land and that if you take away Spirituality from India, all that
shall be left will be mass of bones. These books which glorify India and puts India on top of the rest of the
world do not even appear in Newspaper reviews.

Deliberate
attempts are being made to extirpate everything glorious about India and deceive people in such a way that they
begin to believe that "Aryans" were abominable race and that India
owes its glory to all invaders. This ain't good. Darker days portend ahead.

Mihir Jha posted
a comment in The Mass
leadership Doctrine · At the end, i would say, while writing an
article, its good to focus on your goal to deify someone but then its better to
avoid far-fetched, unseen, unheard, illogical references and analogies. I
hope, CRI publishes this:-)

Friday, June 22, 2012

Because of Comparative Advantage - the Law of Human
Association, which is the First Law of Sociology - free international trade and
migration will lead to the betterment of the least skilled and the least
talented, as well as the poorest nations of the world - and the better-off
nations will gain as well. Foreign technology imports benefit Indians - for
this reason. And those skilled foreigners who export these to us - they gain as
well. Then, the resulting “international division of
labour” will ensure global prosperity, what Adam Smith called “universal
opulence.” Global demand for everything will rise - benefiting all.

Protectionism makes the whole world poorer. As do
immigration controls. Capital controls are even worse. A borderless world means
peace, prosperity, and civilization. They all go together, after all.
Roadblocks on borders make the whole world poorer - and this should be
"intuitive." This requires peace, which is civilisation. Wars
as well as tyranny – these are certainly not what civilization is admired for.
[…]

The Free Society works – because each Individual
acts “sensibly” within it, using all his mental categories, and each does his
utmost to keep his own boat afloat – so when most individuals succeed at this,
the whole of society progresses as well. When most individuals succeed –
society succeeds. When the One Big Power fails – everyone fails.

V.P. Singh formed government after 1989 elections
and implemented mandal commission recommendations on backward caste
reservations. His motivation was to create his own pan-indian political
constituency. Though V.P. Singh implemented mandal with malicious intent,
intellectuals like Girilal jain in his magnum opus “Hindu phenomenon” supported
the move on the ground that it has potential to bring back hindu society to its
proper health. Many current backward castes excluding few feudal ones were
skilled artisans who plunged into extreme poverty on account of
deindustrialization of Indian economy by British. Reservations for these
sections would give them level playing field vis-a-vis other sections of society.
Huge demonstrations, self-immolations and strikes by students in protest of
mandal recommendations occurred for months. To counter V.P. Singh’s political
move and to maintain hindu solidarity on Ram-Janmabhoomi advani launched his
rath-yatra from Somnath to Ayodhya on 25th September 1990 . By
this time televised episodes of Ramayana and mahabharatha in doordarsham
further enhanced the hindus interest in their civilizational continuity and
antiquity. It was a season of Ram-shila pujas, Ramayana serial and Ram
rathyatra. Advani’s Rath yatra evoked huge response and curiosity across india. He was
arrested in Bihar before reaching proposed
karaseva on October 25th 1991 in Ayodhya. [...]

The failure of hindu nationalists is at two levels
1) ideology 2) Politics. Despite their silent hard work for decades hindu
nationalists were not fundamentally clear about their ideology. They have a
goal to achieve glory for Bharatmata on the basis of Sanatana dharma, but they
never thought seriously about the means or mechanisms required to achieve the
goal, even if some at the top echelons within Sangh parivar know how to
achieve the objectives, they never thought it important to educate the
cadre on specifics. So, cadre had full faith in their leadership, but Hindu
nationalist leadership didn’t know how to get things done from so called hindu
sympathetic leaders in power. So, though members of their own parivar were in
power, hindu nationalist leadership had no detailed blueprint on how to use
power to achieve their objectives. State power plays an important role to
expand and implement ideas at the level of larger society, and capturing state
power has been defining moment for any ideological movement, but hindu
nationalism was clueless in the corridors of power.

Akeel Bilgrami’s essay is
important and ambitious. Its importance lies in part in making clear what
secularism is and should be— This question relates to the issue of the
significance of the neutrality of the state and to why Bilgrami thinks the
impasse of relativism does not follow from his view of secularism and why it
does not disable it—both issues on which he disagrees with Charles Taylor…

I think humanism and fraternity require something
beyond a conviction in one’s own truth, though I admit such a conviction adds
something profound, and perhaps even essential, to both ideas… After all,
dogmatism and narcissism are both characterized by self-serving forms of
forgetting that allow one to overlook the fact that one’s views have in fact
changed…

The point I am making can be illustrated by way of
considering Mahatma Gandhi’s attitude towards truth and fraternity. Gandhi
insisted on the truth—his truth. This was the singular yardstick by which his
actions and those whom he led were to be governed and judged… He yoked the two
ideas by giving something of himself, which was not simply an extension of his
firmness regarding his view of the truth. Gandhi’s response to deep differences
went well beyond the avowal of epistemic and moral certainty…

In brief, he vouched for his truth in a way that
gave a thicker content to the idea of fraternity, which therefore went beyond
just vouching for his truth and the inclusiveness that resulted from that
alone. It was such acts that allowed him to think that public concerns could
still be navigated though a familial ideal such as fraternity. And similarly it
was such forms of behavior—some of which were self-referential, such as
fasting, others in which he threw in his lot with his opponents, and yet others
where he stood his ground and accepted the consequences—that made Gandhi’s
humanism genuinely inclusive and more plausibly caring and fraternal. He made
himself, as Bilgrami has compellingly argued in another essay, exemplary and
through that generated a convivial, one might say fraternal, radiance, which
often moved his opponents.

Funnily however some of our modern historians of
Indian antiquity seem to have placed more faith in a fictional romance written
by Thomas Moore called Lalla Rookh. This fictional poem, it seems has become the
basis for Indian historians to hail the reign of Jahangir as exemplary.
While the truth was somewhat embarrassing. [...]

This is the real condition during the Islamic
occupation of India
as exposed by someone who had no hidden agenda to sugar coat the facts. Where
are the public works and utilities, roads and highways, canals and markets
places, running water, drainage and well laid out towns. In hindsight old parts
of our cities are a testimony to the above, narrow dingy lanes, open sewers,
random construction with no planning or public utilities whatsoever.
We will be hard pressed to find a public park or a public water fountain for
the thirsty traveler.

India was looted for personal
gain and self aggrandizement of the Muslim kings and emperors. What
we have are tombs, mausoleums, well laid out private gardens and frivolous
fountains, while the common man was left to fend for himself. India was raped
and trod under the shoes of barbaric invaders who are now extolled by our
secular historians by the likes of Irfan Habib, Romila Thappar, Satish Chandra,
Abraham Eraly and their gang of naysayers who write our school books and sundry
other essays on the golden era of Muslim occupation. Its about time we change
the narrative and retire these old apologist school of historians.

The reason for mentioning Ibn Batuta’s account at
some length is to provide a sample of the mayhem the episodic Madurai Sultanate
wrought upon large parts of the Pandya country—Dhamagani was by no means the
last but was certainly the cruellest of them all. He wasn’t an overtly
ambitious conqueror but he ceaselessly indulged in petty warfare by provoking
the frontiers of his neighbouring Hindu kings.

Matrimandir - Newsletter June 2012The summer months at Matrimandir, and in
Auroville as a whole, are months when things quieten down a bit. The cooler
months of December to February are ...

Sri Aurobindo - Page 820 - Purnima
Majumdar - 2005 - 128 pages - Preview Those living with him thought that this was the
result of a particular cigar, which he used to smoke. One evening, it was seen
that his eye had swollen up a lot. People started getting worried.
Aurobindo reassured them and said, "See, ...

The
Alipore Bomb Case — A historic pre-independence trial 20 Apr 2008 – Hoda
brings out a little known fact that the judge who tried Aurobindo and
others in the Alipore case was a former co-student of Aurobindo at Cambridge! Aurobindo
Ghose was acquitted in the trial. He was defended by none ...

The restless Brahmin: early life of M. N. Roy - Samaren
Roy - 1970 - 148 pages - Among the early leaders of militant
nationalist movement only Aurobindo had conceived of a concrete plan
of action which he had communicated to Jatin Mukherjee in their very first
meeting. But Aurobindo retired from active politics very...

Lokamanya Tilak: a biography - G.
P. Pradhan, Acyuta
Keśava Bhāgavata, G.
P. Pradhan - 1959 - 380 pages - He did not want the decision about the
opportune moment to be entrusted to a less mature person who would be swayed by
sentiments and affected by some passing phases in politics. He thought that only
Aurobindo and himself could take such a momentous decision. He knew that a
revolutionary action was too serious a matter to be decided by anyone except
those who had attained a philosophic calm of mind. Curzon's ...

Sri Aurobindo, a brief biography - Peter
Heehs - 1989 - 172 pages - But before Aurobindo's articles
no one had clearly outlined its object, methods, and limitations. As a
revolutionary, Aurobindo felt that passive resistance was a subordinate means;
but he did feel that legal forms of resistance such as ...

Suneera
Kapoor - 1991 - 142 pages - Preview He argues that if they refuse to supply their needs
from foreign sources they must supply them themselves.73 Tilak conceived the
idea of passive resistance even before Aurobindo. In 1881, Tilak hinted at the
use of boycott as a social ...

The western impact on Indian politics, 1885-1919 - Sankar
Ghose - 1967 - 247 pages - Long before Aurobindo, Bankim
Chattopadhaya, the Bengali novelist, had given a religious significance to the
idea of the Motherland by declaring that in the image of the benign goddess
Durga could be seen the future greatness of the ...

The Book review: Volumes 1-2
1976 - Hindu communalism is interpreted as a reaction to Muslim
separatism— as if Tilak's utterly reactionary social attitudes, on women's
education or the Age of Consent Bill, his concept of Hindutva; or
Aurobindo 's mystical meanderings ...

Gandhi's significance for today - John
Hick, Lamont
C. Hempel, John
Hick - 1989 - 275 pages - Our understanding would be quite
incomplete, on the basis of Gita interpretations alone, if we saw either Gandhi or
Aurobindo merely as examples of renascent Hinduism. Such a designation
would be far too narrow, and deprive both of ...

Gandhi, Freedom, and Self-Rule - Page 125 - Anthony
Parel - 2000 - 164 pages - Preview ... upon a neglected strand of Indian
tradition — the path of karma yoga, or spiritual realization through social
action .... Gandhi believed strongly, unlike Vivekanandaor Aurobindo, that the
time had come for the purification of ...

Press Inside Outside - Page 28 - Rama
Vajpayee - 2002 - 258 pages - Preview But most of the time the role of politicians and
the political activists before Independence and even that of journalists like
Lokmanya, Mahatma Gandhi or Aurobindo were the outstanding examples
of those combining in themselves with two ...

Sri Aurobindo Ghose
- Page 420 - Verinder
Grover - 1993 - 606 pages - Preview As the purpose of my paper is to analyse the
role of the nationalist-revolutionaries led by Aurobindo, 1 would only incidentally refer to the Marxists
just to place Aurobindo in proper perspectives of the non-proletarian
anti- colonial ...

The Lives of Sri Aurobindo - Page 211 - Peter
Heehs - 2008 - 496 pages - Preview The primary aim, political independence, was
announced by Aurobindo in
the columns of Bande Mataram. Derided at the time as the dream of a
visionary or the ravings of a lunatic, it was adopted as the goal ofthe
Congress in ...

Sri Aurobindo -
Page 11 - Purnima
Majumdar - 2005 - 128 pages - Preview The facts mentioned in this letter are
testified by the following letter written by Aurobindo's brother, Manmohan, to his friend,
Lawrence Benaut, in July 1887: "Nowadays, my condition is rather
peculiar.

Director, Savitri Era Learning Forum SRA-102-C, Shipra Riviera, Indirapuram, Ghaziabad - 201014 (UP) India + 91 96500-65636
tusarnmohapatra@gmail.com
Aadhaar No. 3628 2075 7337 SELF posits a model of counselling and communicative action as an instrument in order to stimulate the public sphere. The model aims at supplementing the individual’s struggle for a successful social adjustment with more aspirational inputs so as to help one take an informed and balanced attitude towards life as well as society. Savitri Era of those who adore, Om Sri Aurobindo & The Mother.

Let us rationally believe that social events do not happen suddenly like an earthquake. Those begin to crop from the seeds sown. I praise your efforts; at least the new generation may get opportunity to understand perspectives of events and social equations. -- Rabi Kanungo (Intellectual Forum)***

Some things are sufficiently constant in human affairs - and self-interest, even greed, is among them - that they explain nothing."Greed" certainly can be unleashed to do harm, but it can also be harnessed to do good. -- Donald J. Boudreaux "Greed" Is Not an Explanation from Cafe Hayek***

The fact is that the relationships each of us has with our fellow citizens overwhelmingly are of the arm’s-length, impersonal variety. They are market relationships, governed chiefly by self-interest on both sides of each exchange. They are not the sorts of personal relationships that guide decisions made within households. They are, indeed, precisely the sorts of relationships that each of us has with strangers from foreign countries. The Nation Is Not a House from Cafe Hayek by Don Boudreaux***

Adam Smith never said anything like: ‘the common good emerges when everybody works for their own selfish interest’... In fact, Smith never spoke favourably of selfishness. Richard confuses him with Ayn Rand (1960s) or even Bernard Mandeville (1734). They both lauded selfishness (Rand by making it a virtue and Mandeville by making it a social compulsion – ‘private vice, public benefits’). But not Adam Smith; he called Mandeville's theory 'licentious'. -- Friends Like Richard Are No Help At All from Adam Smith's Lost Legacy by Gavin Kennedy

Adam Smith never endorsed a policy of, or the behaviour of, greed. That is to confuse Adam Smith with Bernard Mandeville, author of the Fable of the Bees, 1734 (written over the years 1704 to 1737), who made greed a private vice but a public good. Folly Of Relying on Poor Teaching from Adam Smith's Lost Legacy by Gavin Kennedy

I am familiar with the works of Adam Smith and know something about his use of the metaphor of ‘an invisible hand’, which he used once in 1759 in The Theory of Moral Sentiments at TMS IV.1.10: p 184, and once in 1776 in Wealth Of Nations (short-title) at: Book IV.ii.9: page 456. He also, for the record referred to ‘the invisible hand of Jupiter’ in an essay, unpublished in his lifetime, known by its short-title as History of Astronomy, when he described the ‘pusillanimous superstition’ in pagan societies. In none of these cases was his use of an invisible hand metaphor anything to do with how simple price markets work. Indeed, the operation of market choice is so simple that your charming six-year-old daughter can understand how they work. -- from Adam Smith's Lost Legacy by Gavin Kennedy